American conductor Gilbert Levine was awarded a high papal honor, becoming the fourth Jew in history to receive the Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.
The Brooklyn-born Levine was awarded the honor on Monday in Paris by French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, who was born a Jew, lost his mother at Auschwitz and converted to Catholicism as a teenager.Levine became artistic director and principal conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1987, the first American to conduct an Eastern European orchestra.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Birthdays: For Tuesday, Dec. 20
Film director George Roy Hill 72
Actress Jenny Agutter 42